Volunteers encourage Zambian students to stay in school
As USU freshmen and seniors alike count down the end of the semester, it may seem unnatural that students elsewhere can’t get enough of school. However, high school students in the South African state of Zambia eagerly await sponsors to fund their schooling, which is only free through elementary school. Expensive high school with the elevated rate of unemployment results in only 8 percent of Zambian children attending high school. With the Zambia’s Scholarship Fund, American volunteers travel to Zambia to encourage students to stay in school and seek means to do so.
In 1998, Peggy Rogers founded the Zambia’s Scholarship, after a trip to Zambia revealed the great need and desire for education by the people there. What began as support for the certification of 10 students at the Kasama student college has evolved into helping more than 1,500 individuals attend high school or become elementary school teachers. Initially, the program was made up solely of Rogers but the Zambia’s Scholarship Fund has since gained workers and volunteers who continue to provide materials priceless to the Zambians.
Rogers will be taking a group to Zambia, from May 11-25, and registration is still open.
“We’re looking for dedicated students who really want to help with a charity,” Rogers said. “It’s for all kinds of students.”
Until now, the work for Zambia’s Scholarship Fund has been solely led by volunteers. The next step is to cross the “threshold,” as Rogers refers to it, and hire employees. The option is given to students to work as an intern for the Zambia’s Scholarship Fund, gain training, skills and experiences in Zambia. The experience may possibly conclude with a job in fundraising for the organization. The trip alone is $1,500 per person, with all proceeds going to scholarships and supplies for the Zambians.
Zambia’s Scholarship Fund trips consist of school visits every morning and afternoon, and promotion of the importance of education in presentations at the schools.
“A lot of children get discouraged over there and think, ‘Why should I stay in school,'” Rogers said.
The act alone of Americans taking the time to travel to remote villages and sharing a passion for learning encourages Zambian students who might otherwise give up before high school.
School supplies, textbooks and bicycles are delivered to schools in rural areas by the volunteer groups.
“We purchase bicycles for these teachers because they live in the villages, and they have no way to go into town to pick up their salaries,” Rogers said.
Through donations, 100 percent of which reach Zambians in need, the organization pays the salaries of more than 150 elementary school teachers.
Vice President of the Zambia’s Scholarship Fund and volunteer Brad McLaws made a family affair of the trip. He, his wife, Chris, and their daughters, Rachel and Sara, took the trip to Zambia on Feb. 11- March 2. One day during the trip, the first school was a long distance down a shoddy road, which hindered quick travel to the second school for the day and resulted in a four-hour delay. Sara McLaws, sophomore at Park City High School, remembered the sympathy she felt for the students of the second school who were undoubtedly waiting for the group’s arrival. However, they were greeted just as warmly as if they had been on time.
“We arrived at the sad little school and found hundreds of children dressed in little red jumpsuits, smiling and cheering,” Sara McLaws said.
The primitive, one-room schoolhouse had no toilets or running water.
“It was amazing to understand that these children with so little were so happy and that they were willing to come to school every day, walking miles each way,” Sara McLaws said.
Chris McLaws recalled a similar, meaningful experience.
“One afternoon while walking into Chaballa village, I noticed a tall teenage boy walking behind me. I turned and asked him what his name was, He shyly responded, ‘Ronald.’ I gently asked him, ‘What can I do for you, is there something you need?’ He looked at me with a somber expression on his face and answered quietly, ‘Everything.’ He was right. I had never seen more need. Although I know I could not possibly meet all the needs of the villages of Zambia, I felt a sense of hope for Ronald. He would get an education because of Zambia Scholarship Fund. He would not have everything, but he would have a start for a better future.”
The Zambia’s Scholarship Fund continues to have lasting effects, according to the ambassador of Zambia, Inonge Mbikusita-Lewanika.
“Children who receive an education grow up to become parents who send their children to school, helping to reduce illiteracy through the generations,” the ambassador said.
USU students interested in the May 11 Zambia trip, contact Rogers at peggyzambia@yahoo.com.
– noelle.johansen@aggiemail.usu.edu